Out of Line: A Life of Playing with Fire

Named one of Times 100 Most Influential People in the World If you have an appetite for culinary adventure youll devour the feisty and fun memoir by James Beard award winning chef and philanthropist Barbara Lynch Elle Blood Bones Butter meets A Devil in the Kitchen in this funny fierce and poignant memoir by world renowned chef restaurateur and Top Chef judge Barbara Lynch recounting her rise from a hard knocks South Boston childhood to culinary stardom Celebrated chef Barbara Lynch credits the defiant spirit of her upbringing in tough poor Southie a neighborhood ruled by the notorious Whitey Bulger gang with helping her bluff her way into her first professional cooking jobs develop a distinct culinary style through instinct and sheer moxie then dare to found an empire of restaurants ranging from a casual but elegant clam shack to Bostons epitome of modern haute cuisine One of seven children born to an overworked single mother Lynch was raised in a housing project She earned a daredevil reputation for boosting vehicles even a city bus petty theft drinking and doing drugs and narrowly escaping arresthaunted all the while by a painful buried trauma Out of Line describes Lynchs remarkable process of self invention including her encounters with colorful characters of the food world and vividly evokes the magic of creation in the kitchen It is also a love letter to South Boston and its vanishing culture governed by Irish Catholic mothers and its own code of honor Through her story Lynch explores how the pastboth what we strive to escape from and what we remain true tocan strengthen and expand who we are